Commuting in Days Gone By

[devon_belle]

Honestly - no idea! Some sort of early somersault ones. Unsure if GWR or LC&DR design.

 

[Springs Branch]

1977 - 1983.
I used to commute from Birkdale to Blundellsands & Crosby ( Merseyrail Network) to get to school at St Mary`s College Crosby.
My memory is the extra comfy seats on the Class 502/503 EMU sets !.

I wasn't a regular Merseyrail commuter, but I do remember those comfy seats on the Class 502s. Especially in that halcyon period when there was a regular hourly limited-stop express between Exchange & Southport during the midday off-peak.

Wasn't the story that the Class 502 (and possibly the Wirral 503) units were originally built with a generous provision of first class seating? This proportion was reduced over the years, and finally eliminated altogether, but the wider seats and generous legroom in the former first class carriages remained - just re-trimmed into standard Second Class 'trojan' fabric.

I suppose if you were a regular, you might work out which were the ex-first class carriages and head for those each day. I wasn't well-informed enough to spot this, had to take a random guess, but sometimes got lucky.

. . . The third side of the Bidston triangle was not (or hardly) used by electric trains, although it had conductor rails, it did have the Wrexham line diesels, which went to New Brighton at this time.

As well as the Bidston steelworks, Bidston station and the triangle also saw a regular flow of heavy iron ore trains between Bidston Ore Dock and Shotton Steelworks. Probably these would have been scheduled away from the commuter rush hours at Bidston, but apparently they were impressive for their Sulzer thrash in diesel days (double-headed Class 24 or 25 required), and even more so in steam days when they were booked for 9F locos.

 

[Taunton]

As well as the Bidston steelworks, Bidston station and the triangle also saw a regular flow of heavy iron ore trains between Bidston Ore Dock and Shotton Steelworks. Probably these would have been scheduled away from the commuter rush hours at Bidston, but apparently they were impressive for their Sulzer thrash in diesel days (double-headed Class 24 or 25 required), and even more so in steam days when they were booked for 9F locos.

Yes, we were there right through the transition from 9F to double Class 24 to Class 47. At times when a ship had come in these iron ore trains could be surprisingly frequent, and they DID continue through the rush hour, both signallers and loco crew were very adept at coming straight across the New Brighton line, every 10 minutes both ways, and then across the West Kirby line at Bidston station, frequency likewise, without anyone getting stopped. The hoppers were unbraked, and the challenge was not so much the climb in the first half of the traverse across The Wirral as the descent in the second half towards Shotton.

 

[yorksrob]

Southern Region 1970s.

The stock would be much the same as what was actually there during my school commuting years (most of the 80s bar the first couple of years or so) but the workings and diagramming would probably be different and it would be interesting to see how it differed from that in place in the 80s.

Would also be interesting to see SUBs, something that I just missed out on.

I have a particular fascination for the 15 years or so prior to when I started to use the railways (so the 15 years starting in about 1967). Perhaps because it would be both familiar and different. I wonder if this is a common pattern for others?

Yes, this would be my perfect commute. Any of those good old trains would do.

 

[nw1]

Yes, this would be my perfect commute. Any of those good old trains would do.

Indeed.

Another idea on the same vein: the Waterloo lines of NSE between May 1989 and May 1991.

By this time I wasn't using the trains every day, but using them semi-regularly for other purposes. However I never observed the workings in huge detail (railways were not my number one interest in this period), but just enough to notice certain things. There were some, in retrospect, fascinating features such as the push-pull 73+TC workings on some Southampton stoppers - and of course the newly electrified Solent lines and their initial service pattern.

I'd like to go back to either the 1989/90 or 1990/91 timetable and commute on it, to finally get the chance to study the workings! (Of course a CWN for either of these years would do, but haven't managed to track any down...)

My interest in the railways increased again in 1991, and I remember quite a bit of detail from this, but that timetable was a step down from the 1990 timetable with cuts as a result of the recession, thus less inherently interesting.

 

[Rescars]

Honestly - no idea! Some sort of early somersault ones. Unsure if GWR or LC&DR design.

From what little I know, my guess is that they are LC&DR rather than GWR. IIRC, LC&DR was at the forefront of signalling innovation. Perhaps there arms for each direction mounted on common units, mounted overhead because of space constrictions. The operating wires look pretty complex, apparently controlled from the hole in wall on the right. It would be good if others know more. This needs another thread, but I don't know how to create one - help please!

 

[Intercity110]

rugby to london euston circa 1970's to 2000s, to see the changing face of the WCML at the time.
ECML throughout the same period.
wherry lines (anywhere) to liverpool street circa 2010 via norwich
any AC electric slam-door units in the early 80's

 

[ian1944]

Early 70s, Blackburn - Manchester Victoria. DMU (no idea what model) with first class compartment at the front, clear view past driver. No great scenery but a lot of visual interest, e.g moors near Darwen, Sough (?) tunnel, viaduct approach to Bolton, Kearsley Power Station with direct conveyors from Agecroft Colliery, urban wasteland of Salford and inner Manchester. Forget the dirt and gloom, Victoria was a real station in those days - grey-tinted rather than rose-tinted specs?

 

[Magdalia]

circa 1970's to 2000s,
ECML throughout the same period.

I did that! Mostly Kings Cross-Cambridge but some Kings Cross-Peterborough and Liverpool Street-Cambridge.

I'd have liked to have done the same, but rolling calendar back 20 years to start in 1958, and finish when the class 365s came in.

 

[Trackman]

Early 70s, Blackburn - Manchester Victoria. DMU (no idea what model) with first class compartment at the front, clear view past driver. No great scenery but a lot of visual interest, e.g moors near Darwen, Sough (?) tunnel, viaduct approach to Bolton, Kearsley Power Station with direct conveyors from Agecroft Colliery, urban wasteland of Salford and inner Manchester. Forget the dirt and gloom, Victoria was a real station in those days - grey-tinted rather than rose-tinted specs?

Blackburn - Vic was always a stopper. I was passing Agecroft Junction a few years back and remembered the stopper always went via Pendleton. Don't know what that defunct spur was called - Brindle Heath I think.

 

[Sm5]

Early 70s, Blackburn - Manchester Victoria. DMU (no idea what model) with first class compartment at the front, clear view past driver. No great scenery but a lot of visual interest, e.g moors near Darwen, Sough (?) tunnel, viaduct approach to Bolton, Kearsley Power Station with direct conveyors from Agecroft Colliery, urban wasteland of Salford and inner Manchester. Forget the dirt and gloom, Victoria was a real station in those days - grey-tinted rather than rose-tinted specs?

101, 104, 108 usually.
if you were lucky you could get a blue 104 with Blackpool white stripe, or even rarer, an all white 108…with blue stripe.

Blackburn - Vic was always a stopper. I was passing Agecroft Junction a few years back and remembered the stopper always went via Pendleton. Don't know what that defunct spur was called - Brindle Heath I think.

Thats it, I think every 30 minsm dropping to hourly, called at Moses Gate, Farnworth, Kearsley (power station sidings with a 25), Clifton , passing agecroft power station with the 3 RSH 0-4-0STs, then Brindle Heath junction, to Pendleton and Salford (passing the Exchange station sidings with a 40 on some mk1’s waiting for something).

Bolton had some nice gantries, on both sides, signal boxes at West, Bullfield, Burnden Park.. then there was boxes at Kearsley, Agecroft… The signals at Brindle Heath were pretty good to.

happy days.

 

[70014IronDuke]

From what I can see, nobody has mentioned the London, Tilbury and Southend line - which just goes to show how niche it was, in geographical terms, I suppose.

I mean in steam days, of course. It's a pity none of the Stanier 3-cyl 2-6-4Ts were named, nor even painted other than black - doing so might have given them and the service a 'something special' brand, making it more noticeable, if only to the enthusiast community.

But the point is, at least from what I've read, is that they performed, day-in, day-out, a remarkable service, with very fast turn-round times at Fenchurch Street and the other ends - at least for steam working, which of course, meant coupling and uncoupling at either end.

 

[satisnek]

As someone whose next planned career move is early retirement, I can honestly say that I have absolutely no desire to commute anywhere at any time! But my late father really did commute from Guildford to London from, I think, 1968 to 1978.

In the early days it would have been on the 'Nelson' stock (4 COR). Around that time BR was heavily into track renewal. First generation continuously welded rail involved laying the track roughly on one weekend then finishing the job off on the next, with a severe speed restriction during the intervening week (I'm sure that the experts can fill in the gaps here). Dad could recall one occasion when the driver forgot about one stretch and hit it at line speed. As can be imagined, the train was all over the place and as a newbie commuter he thought that his number was up, but he looked around at his fellow travellers and they were all completely unfazed!

He also told of the time when he blagged a cab ride one winter evening in thick fog. No AWS, no headlight, the view from the cab was pitch black with signal aspects (which were incandescent bulbs in those days, remember) popping out of the murk a few yards in front of the train and flitting past in seconds. The driver explained that with an EMU he could carry on motoring past double yellows and only needed to brake for a single yellow. Of course, he would have known exactly where he was, but when you think that some of the worst accidents have been caused by a momentary lapse of concentration and a signal which isn't normally at caution, it's a testament to the skill of these guys that the railways were still relatively safe back then.

Then came the new stock. CIGs were preferable to VEPs, of course, and with a combi formation at Waterloo the CIG would always fill up first. In the mornings, Woking commuters would rarely find any seats available on the fast services and so took to sitting on armrests. If you had an aisle seat, Dad said, then you had to make good use of the armrest if you didn't want someone's bum on it.

As some here will know, a 4 CIG had a solitary second class compartment, which wasn't widely known at the time. Dad and a few fellow commuters discovered this and would regularly use it. One morning, they opened the compartment door only to find an enormous Technicolor yawn on the floor with accompanying stench. So they closed the door and sat elsewhere. As the train came to a stand at Woking they could see the the regulars with eyes out on stalks at this empty compartment. And they sat in it!

Then there was the time when Dad had a window seat with the bloke next to him keep nodding off and leaning on him. So after nudging him off several times, Dad observed when he was starting to lean over again and stood up. A loud crash as he hit the carriage side and he stayed awake for the rest of the journey!

I'm sure that there were many more anecdotes but sadly they went with him. This is just the stuff I remember.